dikman

Neat idea for making use of the wax pot (I just took mine off as I considered it superfluous).

Looks great. Stacked leather handles are a lot of work but they do look classy.

Yep, what Bob said. This is what I ended up with (was originally a "conventional" table), shifting the left leg in caused a problem because the weight of the overhang is significant. I had to reinforce the underside of the bottom piece that carries the pedals and fit a castor wheel at the end to stop it falling over. It's not as rigid as I would like but it works for my needs.

Fred, here in Oz we have little choice as our manufacturing base is now minimal, thanks to successive government policies. Most of the items I end up buying are made in China and sold here at highly inflated prices compared to buying them from ebay/aliexpress - much as you've found. Many are advertised on ebay as "local supply", with an Australian city as location, but in reality they are drop-shipped from China once the order is placed. I hate that but it's difficult to determine before ordering if they are doing that, other than a long delivery time. And yes, I've often found the same item, sold by different sellers and with identical advertising so I figure it's likely the same company just using different seller names to give people the impression they have choices. It's all a bit of a game dealing with these people.

Yes, I think kgg is trying to figure out just how much he can remove before it collapses.

Have you got any fine iron filings handy? See if they're attracted to any part of the leather.

Looks like a very solid setup, which you really need for these machines.

Maybe that piece of leather came off a cow that was abducted by aliens and experimented on?

He probably had no idea just how expensive leather is, plus your time if you tool it.

Sort of looks like a thread guide? As kgg said, knowing which machine it is would help, maybe a couple of photos of the thread path, to see if anything is missing?

How true, I'm guilty of doing that many times over.

You're on a roll!

That looks great, very practical. It's a different way of holding the cartridges but looks a lot simpler to make than "conventional" loops. If it's going to be carted around in the woods then it's going to get the stuffing knocked out of it so there's little point in making it pretty.

A new toy! Welcome to the big league. You might want to consider some reinforcing underneath the back of the table, with that big cutout. These machines are heavy and not well balanced, with the centre of gravity somewhere along the arm, mounting it over one of the K-legs is a good idea. Lots of fun ahead, I look forward to your progress.

Very nice work, Danny, clean and elegant. The carving is very well done, for someone who claims to be not artistic you've done an excellent job (just wish I was as good).

kgg offered some good advice. Start simple, get the best value servo you can (doesn't matter if it's 550w or 750w, either will work) and go from their. If you have some mechanical skills, which I suspect you have, then you should be able to fit a servo yourself, it's not difficult. Get some help to remove the clutch motor, though - unless you lift weights.

The price seems pretty good? A 550w will be more than enough for your machine. Those Kraft servos are what I would term generic, as in the only difference between them and other brands will be mostly cosmetic. The Hightex appears to be much the same as the first one you asked about.

Vevor obviously don't make everything they sell but the quality of the goods they sell appears to be very good. I bought a Vevor air compressor and I'm impressed with the build quality. A chap I know bought the same compressor and a heavy duty demolition hammer and he is very impressed with the quality of both. Probably a safe bet if you're not sure who to buy from.

Regarding top speed, servos have various parameters that can be set in the control box. One of them will be setting top speed. When sewing leather most will set this lower, as high top speed is generally not a consideration, but if you feel you need a higher speed at some time you can set this parameter higher and then drop it back after. With a reducer fitted it still won't be super-fast but may be sufficient for your needs. If you only have one machine then setting it up will always be a compromise. I have fitted my motors from underneath, once you have the clutch motor removed it's pretty easy. BUT be careful removing the clutch motor, they are very heavy! Stick with a reducer, like kgg linked to, it will be the simplest option. Forget about building your own reducer and/or replacing the handwheel for now, I only mentioned that to show what options are available, they're not for the beginner. If you're getting the tech to do it then fitting a servo and that reducer should be a pretty easy job.

Sewing it would be better than T nuts, I reckon.

Tarnishing won't make any difference. If you feel it's too thin double it up, if you put something each side (leather, cloth whatever) to protect it then it should last a very long time.

My turn! Yet another option, Ana, is to swap the handwheel for a large pulley, along with a small pulley on the motor. This works the same as adding a speed reducer but is not for everyone as it will probably mean lengthening the belt slot on the table. The one kgg linked to is the same type as the one I found on Aliexpress, it pays to search on there as prices can vary quite a bit. Incidentally, I bought my first three servos (Lishui Skyrit) from them, they were cheaper than ebay back then.

My guess would be tee nuts sandwiched between the outer layer and liner. I just pulled apart an old Hunter western holster and that is how the pouch was held to the skirt.

There's a rule of thumb I discovered a long time ago - the nastier the stuff is (to you) the better it works!!!!! Toluene and Xylene are both very good thinners - but you don't want to make a habit of breathing them in.

There are basically two designs of speed reducer available, a box type that bolts in place of the motor and the motor is then bolted to the bottom of the reducer, all you need extra is probably a couple of belts, and the type with a large and small pulley stack that is mounted on a support arm. This is screwed underneath the table and in line with the pulleys/handwheel. I don't know what is available in Europe. Quite a few on here have made their own using pulleys, axles and pillow block bearings. Lots of info on here if you want to spend the time searching. If you type in sewing machine speed reducer into google you'll be overwhelmed with information! I also found a stacked pulley type on Aliexpress that was considerably cheaper than what they're selling for here (which wouldn't be hard, Australia is not a cheap place to buy things!!). I forgot, youtube is a good source of information on how to install/setup these sorts of things too.